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Ashdoc's movie review---Monsoon shootout

A newly recruited cop full of idealistic ideas is introduced to the ruthless game of chor police when his boss Khan ( Neeraj Kabi ) kills two criminals extra judicially in what is commonly called an 'encounter killing' in Mumbai/Bombay . The new cop Adi ( Vijay Verma ) is the son of a late cop and his mother has told him of three choices in life---the idealistic path of righteousness , the practical path of compromising with your principles for gaining success , and the third middle path .

And he is rapidly called to take a decision on taking one of the three paths on his next assignment , where he chases a criminal called Shiva ( Nawazuddin Siddiqui ) to a wall beyond which lies a railway track . As Shiva is about to climb the wall and try to escape , Adi is positioned some distance behind him but in a position to shoot him . This killing too is going to be another 'encounter killing' unapproved by the courts but deemed necessary by the police in order to rid the system of criminals . The monsoon showers have opened up rather heavily drenching the situation in rain and making the potential shootout a monsoon shootout .

But at this point and position the idealist inside Adi crops up and he hesitates to kill Shiva . Instead he ponders the three paths in front of him and wonders how each path will lead to . Each scenario unfolds in front of him one by one and after each scenario the film returns to that moment in time where Adi is positioned to shoot at Shiva . The completion of the three scenarios takes up almost the entire film .

In the first idealistic scenario Adi does not shoot Shiva and is demoted to a desk job as punishment . And Shiva who is an axe welding murderer unleashes such violence that Adi has to take up a gun again to handle him . In the second practical scenario Adi shoots Shiva , but Shiva turns out to be innocent and Adi has to suffer brickbats and curses of Shiva's wife ( Tannishtha Chatterjee ) . In the third middle path Adi does not kill but injures Shiva and takes him to the court disregarding his boss Khan's orders , but Shiva tricks the courts into letting him out on bail . Shiva then kills Khan and Adi has to take bloody revenge for his boss's murder .

During the playing of the three scenarios we are introduced to other characters like Shiva's underworld boss , his girlfriend ( played by Sreejita De ) who shows off her lovely body by removing her scanty clothes and heating up our vitals on several occasions , Shiva's son who spits fire from his eyes , Khan's sleazy subordinate who lays his lecherous hands on Shiva's wife partially undressing her , Khan's and Adi's female superior in the force who is in league with politicians to get herself a promotion , and the corrupt politician himself who is in league with Shiva's gangster boss .

And in showing these characters , the dark side of Mumbai/Bombay is shown as never before . Indeed this is a decidedly unglamorous film that does not glorify the confrontations between cops and criminals but shows them in all their dirt and grime . An art film in fact . It shows a Mumbai/Bombay we don't enjoy seeing , full of seedy and disreputable characters .

In all three scenarios , Adi ultimately returns wounded to his girlfriend Anu played by Geetanjali Thapa , who is a doctor and tends to his wounds bandaging them . Both love each other and in each scenario Anu accepts Adi inspite of his wrong decisions . She is the soothing balm in the troubled mind of Adi , troubled by his indecision .

But at end of this series of events as the film has taken firm grip of our minds , the director pours cold shower on our expectations that have steadily and surely grown about the film . For taking advantage of Adi's indecision and hesitation , Shiva shoots him dead in the manner of the true dreaded murderer that he is . The director's message is that we should be clear cut about our decisions whether right or wrong and too much pondering about them may lead to disaster....

Barring the disappointment of the ending , the film is an engaging and decidedly different film . The music in the background is okay and the two songs in the film are actually good . Photography is decent and realistic and colours are authentic . Acting is decent by everyone except the main villain Nawazuddin Siddiqui whose talents are not used properly .